Elizabeth Strout tells unforgettable stories about the people of a small town in her internationally acclaimed novel, who yearn for love and happiness but often experience sorrow and pain. Stories about the nature of humanity in all its vulnerability and strength, about the endless diversity of life. There is the janitor who wants to help an outsider and ends up in a deep crisis of faith. An adult woman still longs for her mother's love like a child. And a successful writer returns to her hometown for the first time in seventeen years to visit her siblings.